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Month: June 2014

Have you ever wondered why some people just sail through life and everything seems to just fall into place for them? Happiness and good fortune seem to come naturally to them. What is their secret I hear you say? Well I think I just might have the answer…………..

Successful, happy people aren’t just born with it; they develop the necessary skills and apply these consistently in their day-to-day life.

Throughout my life I have frequently struggled with self-belief and self-esteem. On the outside I appeared to others to be a confident and outgoing person but on the inside, often I was constantly questioning my ability and feeling that if people knew the real me that they wouldn’t like me. All my life I was chasing after that elusive thing called ‘self-esteem’. I always looked to things outside of me, such as my career, always trying to be the ‘perfectionist’ in everything that I did. Little did I know that self-esteem was not to be found in status, academic achievement or position; I had it within me all along……..

One of my strongest and most emotive memories as a child is when I desperately wanted to audition for the school musical. I spent days practising a song and even performed it in front of my older sister who gave me lots of praise and encouragement. When the day came for the auditions, that little ‘gremlin’ inside of my head told me that I wasn’t good enough and that I would just make a fool of myself. I bottled it. It left me feeling incredibly disappointed in myself and like a complete and utter failure. I took this view of myself forward throughout my childhood and into adulthood. The little gremlin was always there to put a doubt in my mind whenever I wanted to try something new or take on a new challenge.

What I didn’t realise at the time, was that these feelings are all too common in children and young adults, and it’s something which I now feel passionately about, as I know from personal experience how it could hold an individual back from achieving happiness and fulfilling their potential. I believe that how children feel about themselves is one ofthe biggest influences on both their happiness and on what they create in their lives. Positive self-esteem isn’t something kids either have or don’t have. Feeling good about themselves, even when things aren’t going their way, is a skill that they can develop, given the right support.

As a certified Wisdom Coach, personal development expert and mum, with a passion for helping children and teenagers to develop positive thinking habits and achieve their full potential in life, I feel that self-esteem underpins almost everything children do. If a child doesn’t believe in themselves, it can hold them back both academically and personally. I can help children develop these skills, through the use of my coaching and the impact on the rest of their lives can be immense.

Adventures in Wisdom is a fun life coaching program for kids using stories to help kids learn critical life skills for developing strong self-esteem, powerful self-confidence; overcoming challenges such as fear, disappointment and change, and learning how to create a vision for their lives, achieve their goals and realise their dreams. It is all about helping kids develop powerful thinking skills and thought patterns to handle the ups and downs of growing up without getting down about themselves or giving up. It is based on the most effective and proven leadership and personal effectiveness skills that have been taught throughout the centuries by some of the greatest teachers and most successful people in history.

You can read more about Adventures in Wisdom and contact Roisin via http://adventuresinwisdom.com/

My children’s story ‘Worm, Slug, Maggot & Leech and their Troublesome Transformation’ has themes around self-esteem and diversity. It is due for release on 12th September 2014 and can be pre-ordered at : https://britainsnextbestseller.co.uk/index.php/book/index/WormSlugMaggotandLeech

Please do leave a comment and I’d be delighted if you would also follow my blog. Thank you again for reading.

About this time 3 years ago I embarked on the story of a worm, slug, maggot and a leech and their quest for beauty – and what this quest actually brought them.

Pregnant and suffering with ghastly morning sickness I was batting back any mediation work offered to me, and in an attempt to use my spare time productively during the 2 days a week that our eldest was at nursery I seized the opportunity to put pen to paper.

The tale gradually took shape. It had been rattling about in my head for some time (along with the story of a girl who tried unsuccessfully to bring some sunshine back from her holiday for her Grandma – could this be next?) And the pictures came together easily. I added the finishing touches after the birth of our youngest daughter during her daytime naps, and during her nighttime feeds I went over and over the text in my mind, the rhymes, the message – how and where could I improve it? It was too clunky in places… too long in others…

I managed to pull together a very primitive book. Using a photo-book template online I scanned my illustrations and uploaded them and added the words in text boxes. I sent my ‘book’ to a handful of publishers – mainly those with a slant toward the production of educational resources. Whilst each reply came without an offer of publication they all (all but one, which practically demanded: “how very dare you send me this tat?!”) were extremely complimentary and encouraging. The reasons for not selecting it for publication ranged from:

‘Unfortunately, we are a small publishing house and as such, we do not accept unsolicited manuscripts’

to:

‘We feel we would not be able to do it justice’

to:

‘It is a difficult time for publishing at the moment many publishing companies of our size have closed down. So we have to be really selective of publishing resources that complement our existing books and ranges. We are afraid we can’t publish your book as it does not fit into our range, as we do not usually publish stories’

I had more or less settled for the fact that I had written the book to tick a box on my bucket list and having it published wasn’t a prerequisite and it certainly wasn’t written for financial gain. Both would‘ve been a bonus of course! However I really shouldn’t waste any more time on it. But lo and behold, BNBS WAS interested and suddenly my life was catapulted into a whirlwind of excitement, creativity, social media, self-promotion, twittersphere, blogging, the local press, PUBLICATION and soon a Sky TV chat show! Who would’ve thought?!

The last 12 or so weeks have been ridiculously wonderful – crazy, but wonderful. And now as my pre-order window is drawing to a close I am reflecting on this time of my life, a time that I will never experience again. I’ve discovered I can do more than I ever thought possible – in one day alone I lurched between a telephone interview about my book, to making a home for a pet cloud with my daughter, to domestic chores, to mediating a longstanding workplace dispute, back to domestic goddess, to securing a publishing deal. I am truly grateful to my supporters who have pre-ordered and have been dedicated to helping spread the word, you know who you are! Thank you. I also appreciate all the hard work BNBS has put in to help me in my mission: your endless support and guidance, allowing me to tap into your experience and expertise whenever necessary.

Who knows what the next chapter of my ‘author life’ holds at the end of the pre-order campaign… I can’t wait to find out!

You celebrated our talents, now it’s time to rejoice in yours! We liked the article about our super powers http://wp.me/p4srpm-1M – we’re glad you’ve noticed. They’ve taken years of perfecting! We’ve also been keeping a watchful eye on you and we’ve got you sussed: You dabble in the dark arts yourselves – using witchcraft and wizardry as your most powerful parenting tools! Here’s what we’ve witnessed:

You mix in some pretty influential magical circles: The tooth fairy? Father Christmas? (How did you get his number?) And how do you lure the monsters and dragons and bears and wolves from under our beds at night?

You’ve got eyes in the back of your head! How else would you know when we’re tormenting our younger siblings behind your back? When we sneak an extra choccie biscuit without permission?!

And you have pretty cool supersonic hearing. You can detect a dollop of porridge dropping to the floor from the other side of the room, you know we’re awake before we do, and you always know exactly where to find the slugs and snails slipping through the garden undergrowth!

Multi tasking? You’ve got it covered. Only a rare phenomenon could explain this level of dexterity and skill.

You have the patience of a saint. Well, most of the time (perhaps you’re still fine-tuning this superpower a little – hope you don’t mind us saying). However, we think you bend time to create additional hours that you fill with Buddhist mantra and meditation to restore your inner calm. You are just so Zen!

Your healing hands could only originate from a higher realm. Princess Plasters? Please. You’re the only master healer around here!

Hands of a healer…. Hands of a conjuror – a sorcerer! How do you make our brightest, loudest, tackiest toys disappear? And reappear in the local charity shop window?!

If all else fails you have a bag of tricks that’s out of this world. The sticker chart, the naughty spot, the downloadable certificates, the direct line to Santa and the limitless praise, encouragement and pride. And real life fairy dust. Amazing!

Last of all, no matter how much we fine tune our super human abilities, you’re always a step ahead; however much we push you, you demonstrate superior powers of endurance, you come back stronger than ever, loving us unconditionally. You really are a force to be reckoned with, and we’re so glad that we’re learning from the best!

Love from,

The Super Kids! x

Thank you very much for reading. If you enjoyed this and my previous posts, please check out my children’s storybook available to pre-order now at: